eBusiness Weekly
Share trading suspended on ASX
Transcription of data complete
Kudzanai Sharara
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed entity Invictus Energy Limited (IVZ) that recently confirmed potential oil resource in Muzarabani, is today expected to announce its maiden prospective resource estimate with regard oil and gas deposits at the Cabora Bassa Project, in Mashonaland Central Province.
This comes after earlier this week, Invictus, asked for the suspension in the trading of its securities and was granted a trading halt by the ASX, pending the announcement regarding the Maiden Prospective Resource Estimate. A trading halt may occur at the request of the company or when the ASX receives an announcement from a related entity that is deemed to be market sensitive. To avoid inside trading, the shares will be placed into a pre-open state until trading resumes after the announcement of the findings.
“In accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 17.1, Invictus Energy Ltd hereby requests a trading halt of the Company’s securities, pending an announcement regarding a Maiden Prospective Resource Estimate. The Company requests that the trading halt remains in place until the earlier of the commencement of normal trading on Thursday November 1, 2018 or an announcement in relation to the above is made. The company is not aware of any reason why the trading halt should not be granted,” reads Invictus’ request to the ASX.
The ASX said IVZ’s shares “will remain halted until the earlier of, either, the release of relevant information, or the commencement of trading on Thursday November 1, 2018”.
In accordance with ASX’s Listing Rule 17.2, a trading halt was granted on Tuesday October 30, 2018, pending the completion and the subsequent announcement yesterday of Invictus Maiden Prospective Resource Estimate.
Invictus had, however, not made the announcement at the time of going to print yesterday.
Resources Estimates
Resource estimation is used to determine and define the ore tonnage and grade of a geological deposit, from the developed block model. A typical resource estimation involves the construction of a geological and resource model with data from various sources.
Invictus has already completed the maiden resource estimation process and what is only left is the announcement of the prospective resource estimate.
On Thursday this week, the company announced that the subcontractor undertaking the transcription of the seismic, gravity and aeromagnetic data from the original field tapes to digital format commenced operations at the Zimbabwe Geological Survey in Harare in August and completed the process late October.
“The transcription of the seismic field tapes will enable the utilisation of the latest seismic processing techniques, which have improved significantly since the data was acquired over 25 years ago by Mobil who spent $30 million,” said Invictus. “The seismic reprocessing exercise will commence in the December quarter, followed by the interpretation which will identify additional prospects and leads within our acreage.
Details of the project
The Cabora Bassa Project encompasses the Muzarabani Prospect, a multi –TCF conventional gas-condensate target, which is the largest, undrilled seismically defined structure onshore Africa. Invictus, which has already spent around $1 million in its first year is expecting to spend between $10 to $20 million for each well to be drilled at the Muzarabani Prospect. “We expect the drilling to cost between $10 – $20 million for each well we drill depending on the depth. If we make a discovery, however; the total investment will then be measured in billions including wells, processing facilities, pipelines and associated infrastructure over the life of the project,” said Invictus managing director, Scott Macmillan in an interview with Business Weekly early October.
Drilling for conventional oil and gas is very expensive (tens of millions for each well) due to the depths involved which requires specialised drilling equipment and personnel to run the drilling activities, said Macmillan. He, however, reiterated that before advancing to the drilling stage, there is still need to conclude technical work before drilling “so we can select the best prospect to drill which maximises our chance of making an oil or gas discovery for the country.”
Why does it take so long?
Macmillan said the ongoing studies might take so long because oil and gas exploration is highly technical and specialised and takes a significant amount of time to study the basin and petroleum system and integrate all the geological and geophysical data. He explained that unlike mining exploration where companies are on the ground “pretty” quickly where often the mineral has a known occurrence particularly in Zimbabwe due to the long mining history, for oil and gas initial work relies on geophysical studies before drilling can commence. If the country is fortunate enough to make an oil or gas discovery, Macmillan said, then all Zimbabweans are going to benefit though taxes, royalties and jobs from the huge amount of infrastructure that would be required to develop the resource responsibly.
For latest developments see Business Weekly website www.ebusinessweekly.co.zw
